When it comes to naming the Joker of the Year, there was no shortage of candidates for the title. However, we’re relieved that we won’t be awarding it to outgoing Governor Mark Sanford for a third year.

Instead of dropping yet another bomb on the Governor, we’ve found someone who truly blew it this year in a way that will be long remembered:

Outgoing Fifth District Congressman John Spratt - South Carolina's very own endangered species.

Just like 1994, the 2010 GOP wave that swept the South didn't stop with election night. A wave of party switches which helped pad the GOP's electoral gains in the months following the 1994 elections seems to be repeating itself.

Following the GOP's upset takeover of the Alabama House and Senate, four House Democrats crossed over, giving the GOP a two-thirds super-majority in a chamber where it was the minority a month ago. Alabama state Reps. Alan Boothe of Troy, Steve Hurst of Munford, Mike Millican of Hamilton and Lesley Vance of Phenix City announced their plans to defect, citing a wake-up call from their constituents who went heavily for Republicans in most other races.

With Republicans now holding either two or three of the "cards" (House, Senate and Governor) for reapportionment control in most of the southern tier states from Arizona to North Carolina (Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Mexico are the exceptions), these switches may not be the last.

State Senator Mick Mulvaney hasn't even turned in his resignation and the race to fill his Senate seat may already be ending.

According to the Lancaster News, GOP leaders in the Senate district are already lining up to support Lancaster pharmacist Hugh Mobley, while the 2008 Democratic candidate, who ran a close race for the seat, opted not to seek the seat:

Mobley has already picked up the support of three Republican leaders – state House representatives Deborah Long of Indian Land and Ralph Norman of Rock Hill and Greg Gregory, the former District 16 state senator from Lancaster.

Four years ago, when she lost her bid for State Education Superintendent by a mere 500 votes, few - including yours truly - would've imagined she'd be back anytime soon, much less winning the Chairmanship of the SCGOP unopposed a year later.

What's happened for South Carolina Republicans during her tenure as Chair would probably have been considered just as unlikely:

A three seat gain in the State House (5 if you count 2 seats gained by a special election and a party switch a month prior to her taking office, both efforts in which she was heavily involved),

The ouster of long-time GOP target John Spratt in the Fifth Congressional District,

A clean sweep where every statewide GOP candidate won by no less than four percentage points (four years ago, Floyd lost by 500 votes and two other winners by margins of less than 4%).

Not surprisingly, the jockeying is underway to fill Mick Mulvaney's soon-to-be-vacated State Senate seat. While some had floated name of State Rep. Deborah Long, fresh from a landslide win as the first Republican re-elected to House District 45, our sources indicate she wasn't interested.

In the 2000 and 2002 elections, a major push by the South Carolina GOP to increase absentee and early voting turnout paid off big dividends. Not surprisingly, a return to focusing upon that nuts-and-bolts aspect of winning elections paid off heavily this year.

In the gubernatorial race, Haley beat out Sen. Vince Sheheen by taking 51 percent of the 142,552 absentee ballots cast in the election. The work paid off in strong GOP counties like Lexington, where Haley took a nearly two-thirds advantage. The results were a little better in the lieutenant governor contest, where Florence County councilman Ken Ard was able to claim a little more than 54 percent.

U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson pulled 57.7 percent of the total, and won each of the three most populous counties, including Richland ... Sen. Mick Mulvaney’s challenge to upset U.S. Rep. John Spratt was a little closer, considering that Spratt had experience on his side. Still, Mulvaney netted 52 percent overall and won four of the five biggest counties, including claiming almost two-thirds of the absentee vote in York.

In January, when Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe is sworn in, he'll be the only one of his kind doing so: of all the statewide officials taking the oath of office in those nine states, he'll be the only Democrat. From Texas to South Carolina, the GOP won all the others.

Of the eighteen legislative chambers in those states, only two will be led by Democrats. On election night, Republicans seized control of four and cut the Democratic majorites in the Arkansas House and Senate by over half, while gaining control of dozens of legislative seats in the others, including over twenty House seats in Texas.

Tired of politicians who refuse to listen, Americans who previously were not involved or minimally involved in the political process are now helping to drive it. While their backgrounds are as diverse as the country itself, their message to Washington is the same: Government leaders are servants of the people; the people are not servants of their government.

The members of the 112th Congress must heed this message if there is to be any hope of repairing the shattered bonds of trust between the American people and their elected leaders. And that begins with the speaker of the House, who as leader of the institution must lead by example.

It's good reading, and if his fellow Republicans play ball with his plan, then perhaps the GOP won't end up blowing it's opportunity to lead, as it did following the 1994 elections when Bill Clinton was able to turn the GOP tide enough to win re-election.

For those who haven't seen it, here's Boehner's election night address:

Like any well-raised country native, Jeff Duncan seems to have remember his manners well. As proof of that, he's having a "Thank You" tour across the Third Congressional District to thank people for their support next week, with evening events in Greenwood, Anderson and North Augusta.

If you can make it, contact Walker Smith at Walker@JeffDuncan.com or 864-430-2730.

The survey findings also cautioned that voters expected a Republican majority to work to produce results on those issues, and that many would consider supporting a third party if the GOP didn't keep its promises to reduce and reform the federal government.

When incoming House Speaker John Boehner promised "our new majority will be prepared to do things differently... to take a new approach that hasn't been tried before in Washington ", he'd be wise to pay attention to the findings of Luntz' report:

House Republicans put themselves in position to ride that wave, casting themselves at every turn as the alternative to Obama policies, and maneuvering to reap the benefits of the tea-party anger that soon began spreading.

Many Republicans doubted the approach would work. But by early this year it had created a sense that a House takeover was possible. That in turn triggered a torrent of contributions to the party and to independent conservative groups that bought ads on behalf of Republicans, helping create a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.

(T)here is not a single Democratic President since FDR whose administrations went smoothly ... This doesn’t bode well for an Obama administration. Not only that, but history usually dictates that a party’s upswing will not last for long – typically two election cycles before stagnation sets in or the course reverses itself.

Two years later, this warning seems to have become prophecy, as the Obama administration and the Democratic Party faces a radically-altered political landscape. Who is largely to blame for stopping the Democratic Brave New World in its tracks?

From where we see things, the prize goes to the much-maligned, but now vindicated, Tea Party movement.

If you didn't tune into a gazillion channels, websites and emails, you may have missed some of what went down last night. So we'll fill you in on some of what you missed:

South Carolina Republicans won big in major races, with a clean sweep of all statewide offices and the ouster of Rep. John Spratt reducing the Democrats major office-holdings to Jim Clyburn, who easily brushed aside the under-funded and poorly-run campaign of Jim Pratt.

State House Republicans picked up three seats, including one surprise, knocking out three Democratic incumbents: Tommy Pope prevailed over the senior House member Herb Kirsh in York County, Peter McCoy foreclosed on the most repulsive member of the House - Anne Peterson-Hutto - in a sobering victory in Charleston County, and CofC graduate student Kevin Ryan knocked off Georgetown Rep. Vida Miller.

Meanwhile, a race that was expected to be a sure bet pickup for the GOP was blown when perennial candidate Sheri Few, well-known for two prior primary defeats and conspiracy theories for those defeats, lost to a relatively-unknown last minute fill-in Democratic candidate in House District 79.

But it wasn't just South Carolina where the GOP tide rolled. While a lot of the Democratic political bodies are yet to be tallied, what took place elsewhere was staggering:

The Blogland wants to give everyone who has been working their butts off to support their candidates a hand for a job well-done. Republican, Democrat or anyone else, y'all have all shown us what you're made of. Win or lose, once the votes are counted and races are decided, be proud of yourselves and the work you've done.

Many thanks also goes out to the many Blogland readers who've sent in story leads and tips that resulted in many of these stories, endorsements and op-ed pieces. It's been a pretty wild ride this year, and we have you to blame.

Watch for live election reports tomorrow night on both the Blogland website and the Blogland twitter feed at "BloglandEC". But as many of you are tired and are sick and tired of Election 2010, the Blogland is going to make your life a little more peaceful by taking the next forty or so hours off.

I'll be in work meetings all day today and most of tomorrow, but will be in Columbia Tuesday night for election night parties. I hope to see some of you out there and meet you in person - even those of you I didn't always agree with - so if you see me out and about, be sure to stop me to say hello (or F*** you, whichever works). If you want me to drop by your event, email me at earl@earlcapps.org.